Regulatory Strategies Used for Mood Regulation

An overall picture has been painted of when, what and why music is used for mood regulation in Singaporean adolescents. In an attempt to answer the second research question, results from the examination of the regulatory strategies of music used for mood regulation will now be discussed.

Results from the current study showed that Singaporean adolescents do use the regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation proposed by Saarikallio and Erkkilä (2007). The most used regulatory strategies were: Strong Sensation, Entertainment and Revival. Discharge was

the least used. Nonetheless, the difference in mean scores for the different strategies were not that stark.

It may be of interest to point out that Singaporean adolescents’ view of effects of music, scenarios for use of regulatory strategies, and situations when they actually use music, may be seen as different and separate entities. Although similar categories were found for regulatory strategies and the effects of using music for mood regulation as presented in the previous section of this paper, the categories that were portrayed as the most used are different when compared between the two. Singaporean adolescents’ top three effects of why music is used for mood regulation are for Relaxation and Calmness, Diversion, and Mental Work, but their top 3 regulatory strategies of music used are Strong Sensation, Entertainment and Revival, and their top 3 situations where music is used are in Background Entertainment, Background Accompanying Cognitive Work, and in situations of Relaxation and Calmness. This difference may actually suggest that what adolescents subjectively view as important effects of music is different from the situations and regulatory strategies they actually actively use to achieve mood regulation. For example, a Singaporean adolescent may often use music as entertainment when faced in a situation of boredom or mindlessness, and the regulatory strategy of entertainment is hence used, but the adolescent feels an effect of relaxation and calmness after listening to music. Moreover, the effect of Relaxation and Calmness was not a stated category of strategy in the MMR scale, so adolescents may have rated scenarios relating to Revival higher, since this strategy includes some scenarios related to relaxation. In getting a better understanding of the use of music for mood regulation in Singaporean adolescents, it may be important to understand and note that adolescents view the regulatory strategies and situations when they use music more similarly, but these are considered to be separate and different from their subjective perspective of what the effects of music are on them. Hence, their responses on each of these entities should also be looked at and understood separately and differently.

6.2.1 Use of Regulatory Strategies Between Age, Ethnic and Gender groups

Singaporean adolescents of different age, ethnic and gender groups did not differ in their overall use of regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation. This suggests that the

overall use of regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation is fairly homogenous across Singaporean adolescents, regardless of their age, gender and/or ethnicity.

An examination of individual regulatory strategies again showed no differences between Singaporean adolescents of different groups. This suggests that not only were Singaporean adolescents fairly similar in their overall use of regulatory strategies of music, this similarity runs through even for each of the individual regulatory strategy of Entertainment, Revival, Strong Sensation, Diversion, Discharge, Mental Work and Solace.

This suggestion that the use of regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation may be homogeneous across Singaporean adolescents of regardless of their age, gender and/or ethnicity seems to be contradictory to what has been presented in previous studies. Previous findings have typically shown females to use regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation more than males, regardless of age groups (Saarikallio, 2006; 2008a; 2008b). Also, it had been previously found that the use of regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation increased with age for both gender groups (Saarikallio, 2006; 2008a). Yet, these differences were not seen in the Singaporean adolescent population. While this similarity across groups may suggest a different trend for adolescents’ use of regulatory strategies of music in Asian cultures as compared to Western cultures, that is, that adolescents of an Asian culture use regulatory strategies of music for mood regulation in similar ways across age, gender and ethnic groups, the lack of differences between groups may also have been due to a limitation in the sample size with the current study. Having a small sample size of 60 as compared with 1515 participants from Saarikallio’s study (2008a) may have led to error causing a lack of statistical difference to be found. Also, the current study did not have participants from the 10 to 12-year-old age group, and this could also have led to a lack of statistical results in the comparison of use of regulatory strategies between Singaporean adolescents of different age groups. Therefore, while this is an initial exploration on the Singapore adolescent population, it may be worthwhile to carry out the study with a larger population in future to see if results may be different and if any differences in age, gender and/or ethnic groups may then be found in their use of regulatory strategies of music in mood regulation.

6.2.2 Use of Regulatory Strategies for Adolescents with Clinical Diagnoses and Challenging Life Situations

In an attempt to explore possible relationships between the use of regulatory strategies of music and adolescent mental health, results of the MMR for Singaporean adolescents who indicated a clinical diagnosis or who faced challenging life issues were particularly examined.

It seemed that Singaporean adolescents who stated a clinical diagnosis like Depression and Social Anxiety Disorder appeared to use regulatory strategies of music generally less than adolescents who did not have any diagnoses. This finding could portray a 2-way explanation.

It could be that, in line with findings from literature, the use of regulatory strategies of music helped with mood regulation, thereby playing a part in prevention and protection against clinical disorders. Or it could be that due to clinical disorders, adolescents used music and its regulatory strategies less. Nonetheless, this finding is based only on raw mean scores instead of statistical differences. The number of adolescents with diagnoses was very small in the current study, with only three diagnosis labels (Depression, Social Anxiety Disorder, Narcolepsy). No statistical analysis was used to compare for possible statistical differences in the use of regulatory strategies due to the limitation in number of participants with diagnoses.

Moreover, the difference in mean scores for overall and each individual use of regulatory strategies was not that great between adolescents with diagnoses and those without.

Therefore, the possibility that adolescents who had a clinical diagnosis generally used music and its regulatory strategies less than those who did not, ought to be taken with caution.

Future studies with a bigger sample size of adolescents with clinical diagnoses could be carried out to further explore the differences in use of music and regulatory strategies in mood regulation between those with diagnoses and those without, and what might be the possible direction of relationship or explanation for the possible differences.

An examination of the use of music and its regulatory strategies between Singaporean adolescents who faced self-professed challenging life situations and those who did not was also done to explore any possible relationships. There were no patterns nor differences seen in the use of music and its regulatory strategies between adolescents who faced challenging life situations and those who did not. Among those who had such challenging experiences, Singaporean adolescents who faced relationship, family and studies issues did not differ from each other in their use of music and regulatory strategies. Perhaps when adolescents stated

challenging situations in their lives, these situations, though real, were actually not as serious or did not have as strong or lasting impact on them, unlike clinical diagnoses which are considered serious and have definite effects on daily functioning. Therefore, there was no impact or differences in the use of regulatory strategies of music for those who faced challenging situations and those who did not state any. Or perhaps, it may again be error due to a limitation of a small sample size, and future studies with a larger sample size may be done to explore if there may be any differences in the use of regulatory strategies of music for adolescents who faced challenging life situations and those who did not.